Remarkable Spirit Manifestations

By Prof. William Crookes and C. G. Helleberg

Spiritualism is a religious movement based on the belief that spirits of the deceased exist and are able to communicate with living people. It began to develop in the 1840s and had reached its peak of popularity by the 1920s, particularly in English-speaking countries. “Remarkable Spirit Manifestations” is a 1874 work by William Crookes and C. G. Helleberg on the subject of spirits, looking in detail at interesting and notable cases of spirit contact with reference to contemporary science. This vintage book is highly recommended for those with an interest in spirits and mediumship, and it is not to be missed by collectors of allied literature. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with the original text and artwork.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Obscure Press
• Release date: Jan 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9781528767798

Book preview

EXTRACTS FROM RESEARCHES

IN THE

PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM

BY

PROF. WILLIAM CROOKES, F. R. S.

OF LONDON, ENGLAND,

FEBRUARY, 1874.

Professor Crooks, among learned persons, is acknowledged as one of the most scientific men of the world, but as this pamphlet will come in the hands of many persons not versed in science, a few words may be said of his great achievement: He is a great chemist and discoverer of the new metal thallium; also, of the supra gaseous state in which matter exists in high vacua, and is the deviser of the radiometer.

A. S. F.

This took place in his own home. Medium, Miss Florence Cook, a girl of fifteen years. Before Mr. Crookes relates the immense number of facts he had accumulated, he expresses himself in this way:

"My principal object will be to place on record a series of actual occurrences which have taken place in my own home, in presence of trustworthy witnesses, and under as strict test conditions as I could devise. Every fact which I have observed is, moreover, corroborated by the records of independent observers at other times and places. It will be seen that the facts are of the most astounding character, and seem utterly irreconcilable with all known theories of modern science.

"Having satisfied myself of their truth, it would be moral cowardice to withhold my testimony because my previous publications were ridiculed by critics and others who knew nothing whatever of the subject, and who were too prejudiced to see and judge for themselves whether or not there was truth in the phenomena.

"I shall state simply what I have seen and proved by repeated experiments and tests, and I have yet to learn that it is irrational to endeavor to discover the causes of unexplained phenomena.

"At the commencement I must correct one or two errors which have taken firm possession of the public mind. One is, that darkness is essential to the phenomena. This is by no means the case, except where darkness has been a necessary condition, as with some of the phenomena of luminous appearances, and in a few other instances. Every thing recorded has taken place in the light. In the few cases where the phenomena noted have occurred in darkness, I have been very particular to mention the fact. Moreover, some special reason can be shown for the exclusion of light, or the results have been produced under such perfect test condition that the suppression of one of the senses has not really weak-ended the evidence.

"Another common error is that the occurrences can be witnessed only at certain times and places—in the rooms of the medium, or at hours previously arranged; and arguing from this erroneous supposition, an analogy has been insisted on between the phenomena called spiritual and the feats of legerdemain by professional ‘conjurors’ and ‘wizards,’ exhibited on their own platform and surrounded by all the appliances of their